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Routh has provided a series of bizarre statements to explain the shootings

Stephenville, Texas (CNN)After eight days of testimony, the murder trial in the "American Sniper's" death has not answered the one question that still haunts the families of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield.

Kyle secretly texted Littlefield, sitting next to him in a pickup, to say Routh was "straight up nuts." Kyle's wife, Taya, "could tell something was up" that afternoon when she spoke to her husband. Kyle sounded "irritated," she has testified, then he never responded to a text asking if he was OK.

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Yet Routh hasn't revealed a clear reason in the fatal shootings. Kyle was shot four times in the back and once in the face. Littlefield was shot five times in the back.

Instead, the jury has heard a series of bizarre explanations for why Routh allegedly turned the guns on Kyle and Littlefield.

Insanity or personality disorder?

Routh's attorneys say the former Marine suffers from psychosis, paranoia and schizophrenia. Prosecutors argue Routh is a "troubled man" who struggles with a "personality disorder," not insanity.

The arguments are in direct contrast to one another. While Dr. Randall Price, a forensic psychologist who testified as the prosecution's medical expert, said Routh's heavy marijuana use caused a "substance-induced psychotic disorder," Dr. Mitchell Dunn said his opinion was that Routh's "psychosis was not substance-induced."

"It is my opinion that he was suffering from a severe mental disease or defect that caused him not to know his conduct was wrong," Dunn testified.

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One piece of evidence -- video from the police car after Routh's arrest -- shows the accused shooter complaining of mental problems and confusion.

"I've been so paranoid-schizophrenic all day, I don't know what to even think of the world right now," he told the officer. "I don't know if I'm insane. Or sane. I don't know what's even sane in the world right now."

'They wouldn't talk to me'

Gene Cole worked as an officer in the Erath County Jail where Routh has been held since his arrest in the killings. Cole testified he heard Routh talk about the shootings four months after the tragedy.

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"I heard Mr. Routh say, 'I shot them because they wouldn't talk to me. I was just riding in the back seat of the truck and nobody would talk to me. They were just taking me to the range so I shot them. I feel bad about it, but they wouldn't talk to me. I'm sure they've forgiven me,' " Cole said.

Later in the phone call, Routh complained that Kyle and Littlefield stopped to feed him at a fast-food restaurant on the way to the range. It was "strange" because he wasn't hungry, and he felt the two men were trying to "force feed" him, Routh said to Schmidle.

'This isn't a spectator sport'

Routh's attorneys have suggested it was the arsenal of firearms lying next to Routh that triggered his psychosis and paranoia on the car ride.

"At the time of this tragedy, Eddie Routh was insane," defense attorney Tim Moore said. "Not only was he suffering from a severe mental disease or defect, not only did he not know his conduct was wrong, he thought he had to take their lives because he was in danger."

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Routh said that when the men started shooting pistols at the gun range, he saw it as a showdown.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Islamic State is using social media and the promise of adventure to lure British Muslim girls to join its cause, an anti-extremism think tank said on Monday, as police attempt to trace three London schoolgirls believed to be heading to Syria.

In September 2012, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told the UN general assembly that an Iranian nuclear bomb was imminent. But leaked intelligence documents obtained by al-Jazeera and the Guardian reveal that Israeli intelligence thought differently at the time Continue reading...

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (Reuters) - New U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Monday America had the right "ingredients" of a strategy to combat Islamic State, emerging from talks with top U.S. military and diplomatic leaders without hinting at any fundamental shift in the campaign.

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — Calling the Islamic State “hardly invincible,” new Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter gave his blessing Monday to the U.S.-led strategyagainst the militant group after convening a high-powered summit of U.S. commanders and diplomats here.Read full article >>

RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports that authorities in the country took several actions against its journalists today, continuing a string of attacks that began in December last year. In a closed-door trial that was called suddenly on February 23, investigative journalist and RFE/RL contributor Khadija Ismayilova was found guilty of criminal libel and fined 2,500 AZN ($2,417 as of 2/23). The libel charge stems from accusations made in 2014 by an individual named Elman Hasanov, but referred to in reports as Turkoglu, who said Ismayilova defamed him in statements she posted on Facebook. Ismayilova denies the accusations, and said she published a document but had removed all names. These allegations were not among the charges against Ismayilova when she was sentenced to pre-trial detention in December 2014. Neither members of her family nor journalists were allowed to attend today’s hearing, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reported. Earlier on February 23, former RFE/RL Baku bureau chief Babek Bakirov was stopped at the Baku airport and prevented from boarding a plane, after being told he was under a travel ban at the request of the Azerbaijani prosecutor’s office. Bakirov was not informed of any charges against him that would justify such a ban. In September 2014, Azeri authorities had banned Ismayilova from leaving the country, which prevented her from testifying at a hearing of the US Helsinki Commission, in Washington. In addition, a former freelancer for the Service based in Azerbaijan was taken today to appear at the Azerbaijani prosecutor’s office for questioning. Out of concern for his safety, the journalist has asked that his name and the subject of the questioning not be revealed. Twenty-six journalists and staff members associated with the Service were previously interrogated following a December 26, 2014 raid on RFE/RL’s Baku bureau by agents of the state’s "grave crimes investigations committee" in connection with a new law on so-called "foreign agents." The same law was invoked to force the National Democratic Institute, IREX, and other organizations supporting civil society development to suspend their local operations. Ismayilova, whose letter from prison was published in the print edition of the Washington Post on February 20, has reported extensively on the financial activities of family members of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. She was arrested and jailed on December 5 on charges of inciting a former colleague to attempt suicide, and has since been presented with additional charges to include embezzlement, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, and abuse of power. Her detention has been widely condemned as part of a systematic, state-led campaign to intimidate and silence the country's independent activists and journalists.

College, where new Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has spent as much time as at the Pentagon, loves bull sessions. That’s just what Carter did Monday, summoning U.S. military and diplomatic brainpower to an unusual closed-door session in Kuwait where some of the America’s finest Middle East minds gathered to debate how to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.

Sure, the more than two dozen attendees sat at a government-issue T-shaped table, complete with their names on placards, instead of sitting cross-legged on the floor. But, at the start of his second week on the job, Carter made clear he is as interested in listening as he is in talking. “This is team America,” he declared, before reporters were ushered out of the room.

At the end of the six-hour session, Carter declared ISIS “hardly invincible,” and gave no hint of any major change in U.S. policy, despite calls from some congressional Republicans for more robust military action. “Lasting defeat of this brutal group,” Carter said, “can and will be accomplished.”

No revamped war plan was expected to surface during the session, although Carter said the U.S. needs to step up its social-media duel with ISIS, and that certain unnamed allies need to do more. Rather, aides said, Carter was seeking to dive deeply into the current U.S. strategy, understand its logic and see if it can be improved.

While such sessions often happen without public notice in Washington, convening one abroad—and publicly detailing its purpose and attendees—marks a shift in how the Pentagon is conducting business under its new chief.

Those at the session included Army General Lloyd Austin, who as head of U.S. Central Command, oversees the anti-ISIS campaign, and Air Force General Philip Breedlove, NATO’s military chief. Diplomats attending included retired Marine general John Allen, now the White House’s envoy responsible for ISIS, and U.S. ambassadors in the region.

The Pentagon instructed those attending to leave their PowerPoint presentations at home, and be ready to face questions from Carter. These kinds of sessions—especially when senior officials are visiting from the capital—often turn into subordinates’ show-and-tell rather than tough questions with frank answers.

Carter, a physicist by training, has spent much of his career lecturing on college campuses, including at Harvard, Oxford and Stanford. Between academic gigs, he also has served tours inside the Pentagon, including as deputy defense secretary from 2011 to 2013.

Carter plainly wants the war on ISIS to end differently than the wars the U.S. launched in Afghanistan (in 2001) and Iraq (in 2003), where battlefield successes turned into nation-building quagmires. ”If we are to have a defeat of [ISIS]…it needs to be a lasting defeat,” he told U.S. troops at Kuwait’s Camp Arifjan before Monday’s session began. “What we discuss here, and what I learn here, will be important to me as I formulate our own direction in this campaign and as I help the President to lead it.”

Assuming Carter heard something that could help turn the tide against ISIS, getting the White House to listen to his advice could prove challenging. President Obama’s first two defense chiefs, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, made no secret of their disdain for White House interference in Pentagon planning, and Pentagon officials cited such micromanagement as a problem during Chuck Hagel’s recently-concluded tenure.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A United Nations panel assessing the future technological needs of peacekeeping missions has recommended dramatically expanding the use of unmanned surveillance drones in U.N. military operations, the head of the panel said on Monday.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Socialist Party legislators called on Monday for a probe of another Venezuelan opposition leader accused of conspiring against President Nicolas Maduro, just days after the mayor of Caracas was arrested on similar charges.

Russia says it has begun supplying gas to the war-ravaged area of eastern Ukraine, now that the government in Kiev says it can no longer deliver fuel there because of heavy fighting and damage to fuel-supply networks.

Ukraine’s state gas company, Naftogaz, said Feb. 19 that it cut off gas to the rebel-held region the day before “[d]ue to the extensive damage of the gas transport networks, the supply of gas … [and] the ongoing hostilities in the region.” It includes the self-described republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Within hours in Moscow, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a meeting of his cabinet that he had directed the Energy Ministry and the Russian gas giant Gazprom to draw up “proposals of humanitarian aid in delivering gas for the needs of these regions, unless of course [Kiev] doesn’t take any action to supplying gas according to the normal schedule.”

Gazprom said it immediately began supplying gas to eastern Ukraine through two pumping stations on the two countries’ shared border. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said his company was pumping the fuel at a rate of 12 million cubic meters per day. This was in addition to the 30 million cubic meters of gas per day that Ukraine already was receiving, according to Sergei Kupriyanov, a Gazprom spokesman.

Gazprom’s fuel deliveries to Ukraine – and their occasional interruptions – have been just one sore spot in the sour relations between Moscow and Kiev. Ukraine receives most of its gas from Russia, and at the same time pipelines transiting Ukraine provide Western Europe with about 30 percent of its gas, which comes from Russia.

In February 2014, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, who favored continued cordial relations with Russia, was confronted by a popular uprising of citizens demanding closer ties with the European Union. He fled to Moscow, and Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

Russia is now suspected of providing weapons and even manpower to a heavily armed pro-Russian separatist movement in Ukraine. In response, the EU, the United States and, most recently, Canada have imposed strict economic sanctions on Russia.

Because of its reliance on Russian gas, Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk says he’s ready to find other sources of energy by getting more gas from its European neighbors and increasing oil and gas exploration in his own country.

“We have proved that we are able to get rid of Russian gas dependence,”Yatsenyuk said on the Ukrainian 1+1 channel on Sunday. He noted that in 2013 Ukraine bought 95 percent of its gas from Russia, but reduced that to only 33 percent in 2014, with the balance provided by Europe.

The state-run gas supply and transit company Ukrtransgaz reports that Ukraine imported 5.1 billion cubic meters of gas from Europe in 2014, a 59 percent increase over 2013. It said that is attributable to the new Voyany-Uzhgorod pipeline.

Since the pipeline opened in September 2014, it has accepted 0.6 billion cubic meters of gas from Hungary and 3.6 billion cubic meters from Slovakia, while imports from Russia plunged by 80 percent to 14.5 billion cubic meters. As a result, Ukraine saved about $1.5 billion in 2014 by buying less costly fuel from its neighbors.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld predicted that President Obama would not listen to new Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Tuesday’s “On the Record” on the Fox News Channel.

“He’s a good man, and in my view he was a good appointment. I see him as a highly skilled technical person for the department. I’m not part of the Obama White House, But I have trouble believing that the people in the White House, with all the czars and the different factions in there that — I mean he is going to be the Secretary of Defense for this president, and this president was elected, so he probably will do a very good job down in the department. How successful he’ll be dealing–getting the president or the key people, Valerie Jarrett and the other people that are so influential in the department to alter their behavior, or their advice, or their views, I don’t think that’s going to happen” Rumsfeld stated of incoming Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

Rumsfeld said that ISIS’ rampage “brings back to mind the period before World War II where people said ‘I didn’t know,’ or ‘I was just following orders,’ or ‘it’s random.’ But when you kill, systematically kill Jews and kill Christians and say that’s what you’re doing it’s not random, it’s purposeful. And it seems to me a lot of the country is still in a state of denial about it and the only way you can deal with something like that is to put it up on the table, call it what it is, deal with it. And any idea that you can defend everywhere at every moment of the day or night against every conceivable technique is simply wrong. If you try to defend everywhere, you defend nowhere. The only way you can deal with it is to go after those people.”

He also summarized the situation in Ukraine as “free play” for Vladimir Putin, and Europe’s handling of the problem as “impotent.” He declared the world is “letting things happen there that–rather than dissuading further adventuresome behavior by Russians, it encourages it.”

Answering a question about Rudy Giuliani’s controversial comments about Obama not loving America, Jindal said, “I think the mayor should have used different words to express what he wanted to say. I didn’t want to throw him under the bus. I know the media loves to see Republican attack other Republicans. The president loves America. He loves our country and there’s no doubt about that.”

He continued “Further, I think the substance, the point the mayor was trying to make is an important one. There are many of us that are very concerned about the president’s unwillingness to call a radical Islamic terrorism and the threat that we face. I wrote an op-ed today I think the president has really disqualified himself to be our commander-in-chief because he will not, not only identify this threat but take the steps necessary to defeat this threat.”

Jindal concluded by saying, “The essential point was that it would be better for the president—not to warn us about the threats of medieval Christianity—and necessary always to point out those kinds of things, rather than actually identifying the threats we face. I think the mayor can speak for himself, but again I wouldn’t have used those words. I think the president loves our country. But the point was right There are many of us concerned about this president’s unwillingness to identify and take on directly the threat of Islamic radical terrorism.”

In an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with Bob Schieffer on Sunday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) described Texas’ border security challenges as a “problem [that] is not going away,” as 20,000 people have already been apprehended this year crossing illegally.

Abbott first discussed the recent ruling by Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, which held that the plan President Barack Obama announced last November to grant amnesty via executive order to millions of illegal immigrants was not something that he was authorized to do under the law. In his final weeks as Attorney General, Abbott had filed a lawsuit against this executive amnesty, which twenty-five states ultimately joined.

Abbott said that he expected the case to “continue all the way to the Supreme Court,” but repeatedhis previous comments that he was “confident” that his side would continue to prevail.

The reason he filed the lawsuit, and the reason that the issue was so critical for Texas, according to Abbott, is the ongoing problems with people continuing to cross our border illegally. What needs to happen, said Abbott, is that Congress needs to “fulfill its responsibility to solve the problem.”

“We all saw what happened on the Texas border last summer, but we need to understand that the problem is not going away,” said Abbott.

“Already this calendar year, since January 1, we have had more than 20,000 people come across the border, apprehended, unauthorized. And so we have an ongoing problem on the border that Congress must step up and solve.”

Schieffer also asked Abbott what he plans to do with the estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants who are already in Texas. Abbott replied that in addition to Congress acting to fund border security and address the immigration issue, “the president himself said as these people were coming across the border that he would repatriate them as soon as possible. So, we need to see whether or not the president himself is going to live up to the commitment that he made.”

An Oregon Democrat believes that the fight for amnesty for illegal immigrants is the “civil rights battle” for millennials that will decide who controls the the country for the next three decades.

“Immigration reform is probably the biggest issue of the 21st century,” Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) reportedly said at an “Immigration Day Action” event this weekend. “It will decide who is in charge of this country for the next 20 or 30 years.”

According to the Portland Tribune, Schrader made his remarks at an event that was sponsored by Causa, a prominent Oregon pro-amnesty group, and he compared today’s amnesty fight to the civil and voting rights movements in the 1960s, saying the amnesty movement is “the civil rights battle for the younger generation.”

“They, too, had a different background — different ethnicity, different race — and yet they had rights to participate in this country of ours that had been denied them,” he reportedly told the gathering at Chemeketa Community College. “This is what is at stake now for a lot of you and your families. I feel a kinship and a need to support all people who had an opportunity to come to this great country.”

As Breitbart News has emphasized, though, “the civil rights movement of the 1960s was about ensuring that black Americans received all of the rights they were due as citizens of the United States while today’s pro-amnesty movement is about demanding full rights for non-citizens who entered the country illegally.”

Oregonians for Immigration Reform, which has opposed Obama’s executive amnesty, acknowledged that “immigration built the foundation and wove the fabric of our sovereign nation,” but emphasized that it “is concerned about the utter disregard for existing United States immigration laws.”

“A sovereign American nation has both the right and the responsibility to limit immigration and control its borders,” the group reportedly said.

The White House on Monday asked for a stay of a federal judge’s injunction against Obama’s executive amnesty while it readies its appeal. Judge Andrew Hanen last week issued an injunction after a majority of states sued the Obama administration over its executive amnesty. As the Tribunenoted, though, Oregon, whose progressive voters overwhelmingly rejected driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants last November, was not one of those states. Oregon actually joined 11 other states and Washington, D.C. to file a brief in support of Obama’s executive amnesty.

Schrader also predicted that since “Republicans are desperate” to get Hispanic votes, they would soften their position on comprehensive amnesty legislation. But as Breitbart News detailed, an Eagle Forum report last year “concluded that massive amnesty legislation would be ‘suicide'” for the conservative movement and the Republican Party:

As Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly noted, although “a Harris poll found that 81% of native-born Americans believe schools should teach patriotism,” 50% of recent immigrants do not want their children to be “taught to be proud of America.” Schlafly said that means new immigrants will be offended when conservatives emphasize patriotism and assimilation.

The Eagle Forum report concluded that, though “Republican outreach to Asian and Latino voters” is “critical,” Republicans “can never turn liberal-leaning immigrants and their adult children into supporters of limited government faster than the current high level of legal immigration (one million a year) is bringing in new liberal voters.” The report found that new immigrants “and their adult children are significantly more liberal than the average American voter on a host of policy issues, including the size of government, Obamacare, affirmative action, gun control, greater environmental regulation, and other issues championed by the Left.

Calls to legalize illegal immigrants, whom Americans opposed to amnesty have referred to as “undocumented Democrats,” also turn off white working-class voters. As Democrats noted in their autopsy report of the 2014 midterm elections, which curiously did not mention the impact that Obama’s proposed executive amnesty had in giving Republicans back control of Congress, white working-class voters have been abandoning the party.

“In order to win elections, the Democratic Party must reclaim voters that we’ve lost including white Southern voters, excite key constituencies such as African American women and Latinas, and mobilize the broadest coalition of voters possible to not only recapture state houses but also Congress,” the report concluded. “In order to better understand how to bring this large coalition together, the Task Force recommends — in tandem with the National Narrative Project — that the DNC’s research delve more deeply into the barriers that keep people from identifying with, and supporting, Democratic candidates. This also includes working to better understand drop oﬀ and independent voters.”

If white-working class voters continue to abandon Democrats en masse because of issues like amnesty, the party will need new voters to replace them. Perhaps that is why Democrats have gone all-in on Obama’s executive amnesty–even uniting to filibuster the House’s Homeland Security funding bill over it–and comprehensive amnesty legislation.

Libya's internationally recognized parliament based in Tobruk voted Monday to pull out of U.N.-sponsored national dialogue talks with a rival government based in Tripoli. The vote to suspend participation in the U.N.-sponsored dialogue talks came as emotions continued to run high, after last week's car-bomb attacks in the eastern city of Quba which killed over several dozen civilians. The town is the home of parliament speaker Aqelah Saleh. Member of parliament Omar Gheith says that lawmakers have summoned their delegation to the talks in the Moroccan capital Rabat - due to have been held on Thursday - to return to Tobruk for “consultations”: "The decision to suspend participation in the talks does not mean parliament intends to 'boycott' them, but that the climate isn't ripe for dialogue following a series of events, including the killings of 21 Egyptian Christians, the car-bombings in Quba which left 55 dead, and given that the other side is not, in his view, serious about talks," said Gheith. At the same time, in the capital Tripoli, which is under the control of the Islamist Fajr militia coalition, members of a national dialogue committee under the auspices of the old legislative assembly, the General National Congress, met to discuss the issues under consideration. Moussa Bigarash, spokesman for the committee, told Qatar-based Libya li Kul al Ahrar TV, that the “Libyan people are demanding a “suspension of hostilities” and “talks." "Given the recent [violent] turn of events in Libya the time has now come for a national dialogue and Libyan public opinion in its entirety would like to see a suspension of violence and the start of talks," said Bigarash. US Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones tweeted that the U.S. “has expressed no preference regarding a national unity government in Libya, except that it be representative and inclusive.” Libya currently has two rival governments in the east and west of the country, although only the Abdallah Thini cabinet under the aegis of the parliament in Tobruk is internationally recognized. Yet late last year, Libya's supreme court ruled that the parliament in Tobruk was illegal, and should be disbanded. Former Libyan interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril told Arabiya TV that demands that both the Islamists in Tripoli and the parliament in Tobruk have equal footing were “unfair and would negate the results of a three year political process in which the Islamists were voted down by a majority of Libyan people.” Libya's representatives to both the United Nations and the Arab League have been urging the U.N. Security Council to lift an arms embargo on the Libyan Army. Military forces in the east, under the command of retired Gen. Halifa Haftar, have been battling rival Islamist forces in the west and pockets of hardline militants in the east, as well.

U.S. President Barack Obama says a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security would have a direct impact on the economy, as well as national security. Speaking to a state governors meeting at the White House, Obama said a partial shutdown of the agency would mean more than 100,000 border patrol, port inspection and airport security agents would be left without a paycheck. The agency's $40-billion budget is set to run out this week because of a political dispute over immigration. Most of the department's 230,000 employees would keep working, but would not receive pay until Congress authorizes funding. Watch related video report by VOA's Michael Bowman In November, the president made sweeping changes to immigration rules through executive order. Republicans, who say the president has overstepped his authority, are blocking funding for the agency unless Democrats agree to cancel the executive order. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has asked a federal judge in Texas to lift his temporary hold on Obama's action to shield millions of immigrants from deportation. Last week, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen issued a preliminary injunction sought by 26 states to halt the president's immigration order that would prevent the deportation of as many as five million people who are in the country illegally. The Justice Department is asking the judge to put his ruling aside, which would keep the executive actions in place, while the federal government appeals the decision. Most Democrats continue to support Obama’s expansion of immigrant rights. The House minority leader, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, says the president’s immigration actions are similar to those undertaken by previous U.S. presidents, including Republicans. The president's executive order included expansion of a program that protects young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the United States illegally by their parents. The program was to begin receiving applications on Wednesday. The president's order would also protect parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for at least five years, and had committed no serious crimes.

Defence secretary Michael Fallon back on message as George Osborne and Ed Balls fight over HSBC

By the time David Cameron got to update MPs on assorted EU crises in Ukraine, Greece, Libya and runaway-to-Syria schoolgirls some backbenchers were sufficiently exhausted to need another half-term break. Why so?

Not just because shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, was rash enough to raise the HSBC tax scandal again. In doing so he gave George (where is he?) Osborne the chance to launch the most savage counter-offensive since pro-Russia forces last broke the Minsk ceasefire. It was painful but, as usual in these situations, both sides blamed each other for starting it.

Tehran said to be considering offer, which could have an impact on nuclear talks approaching a deadline next month

Russia has reportedly offered to sell Iran powerful and advanced anti-aircraft missiles in a deal that could have an impact on nuclear talks approaching a deadline next month.

Sergei Chemezov, head of the Russian state arms conglomerate Rostec, was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying the firm was willing to supply Tehran with Anstey-2500 missiles with the capability of intercepting and destroying ballistic and cruise missiles as well as aircraft. Chemezov said Tehran was considering the offer.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday accused Western powers of trying to dominate and impose their ideology on the rest of world, while the United States and European delegations slammed Moscow for supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin and his top apparatchiks should face international justice over the annexation of Crimea, Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko demanded today.

Vowing to win back the Black Sea peninsula in future, Poroshenko alleged the rights of people in the annexed region had been repressed under Kremlin control.

His demands came as Kiev delayed a promised pullback of heavy weapons from the front line in eastern Ukraine, saying continuous attacks from rebel troops means they cannot safely withdraw.

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Demand: Vladimir Putin (left) and his top apparatchiks should face international justice over the annexation of Crimea, according to Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko (right)

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Conversation: Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (right) react during a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin this morning

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Petro Poroshenko's demands came as Kiev delayed a promised pullback of heavy weapons from the front line in eastern Ukraine, saying continuous attacks from rebel troops means they cannot safely withdraw

Poroshenko used an address on the first anniversary of the start of the annexation to promise his country will regain control over the peninsula.

'I am not going to say today that it will happen quickly and easily,' admitted the pro-Western president.

'But it will definitely happen, we shall build together a new Crimea, where the rights and interests of the indigenous people of Crimea and all the inhabitants of the peninsula, regardless of their ethnic, language and religious background, will be guaranteed.'

He went on to demand Putin faces international justice over the annexation of Crimea.

'The time will come, and anyone who has committed and will commit a crime against the Ukrainian state and human rights in Crimea, will face international and Ukrainian trials,' he said.

He wants Russian officials to stand trial in The Hague, said the Kiev media.

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A member of the Ukrainian armed forces smokes as he stands near an armoured personnel carrier today

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Members of the Ukrainian armed forces embrace after returning from the front line near Artemivsk

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Ukrainian troops ride on armored vehicles towards Artemivsk in the east of the country this morning

Despite pro-Russian rebels making new inroads in eastern Ukraine in the past month, Poroshenko claimed his country 'will never give up its sovereign rights to Crimea.'

'Ukraine will defend by all available means the rights of people, who live there. There is a complete consensus on this issue,' said.

The annexation - which began one year ago - was a 'vile act carried out contrary to international law', he said.

With rebels massing near the strategic port of Mariupol, in violation of a ceasefire, Kiev refused to pull back its heavy weapons, claiming its forces were still be targeted by separatists.

'As Ukrainian positions are still being fired upon there can be no talk yet of a withdrawal of arms,' said military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov .

Moscow denies giving military support to the rebels. But Russia made the same denials over Crimea before admitting that it had deployed troops.

If Mariupol falls to the pro-Russian rebels, it would remove a key obstacle to creating a separatist land corridor stretching from Russia's border with Ukraine to Crimea.

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A Ukrainian soldier smiles while riding on a self-propelled artillery piece near Artemivsk this morning

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A Ukrainian serviceman carrying a sniper rifle leans against a heavy machine gun this morning

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A Ukrainian serviceman stands in a truck pulling a twin-barrelled anti-aircraft gun while his withdrawing unit rests in the village of Artemivsk, near Debaltseve, in the largely rebel-held Donetsk province

This morning military spokesman Lt. Col. Anatoliy Stelmakh told reporters that Ukraine will begin its delayed withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line in the east of the country only when rebel attacks entirely stop, in line with a cease-fire that was supposed to begin February 15.

Stelmakh said there were two rebel artillery attacks overnight and although this is significantly fewer than in previous days, 'as long as firing on Ukrainian military positions continues, it's not possible to talk about a pullback.'

Colonel Valentyn Fedichev, deputy commander of the military operation against the rebels, said there had been 27 attacks against Ukrainian forces over the past 24 hours, which he said was lower than in recent days. He also indicated that no pullback was imminent.

'If the enemies continue to use their own heavy weapons, it is clear that Ukraine will continue to counteract these operations,' he said.

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Delay: A Ukrainian military spokesman said Kiev will begin its delayed withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line in the east of the country only when rebel attacks entirely stop

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Ukrainian troops ride on an armored vehicles ahead of self-propelled artillery near Artemivsk this morning

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Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride military vehicles near Artemivsk earlier todau

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's observer mission in Ukraine is supposed to be monitoring the weapons withdrawal.

Its spokesman, Michael Bocuirkiw today said the monitors had seen heavy weapons movements by both sides but could not tell whether weapons were being pulled back or just being redeployed.

An Associated Press reporter today saw Ukrainian forces moving back from around the town of Debaltseve, which was captured last week by rebel forces after a fierce week-long siege.

Both Stelmakh and Fedichev said rebels are still trying to overrun a Ukrainian government position in the village of Shyrokyne, on the outskirts of the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Rebels began moving toward Mariupol last August, raising concerns they were seeking to seize the city in order to establish a land corridor between mainland Russia and the Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula.

Russia has denied arming the rebels, a denial scoffed at by Western nations and NATO, who point to satellite pictures of Russian weapons in Ukraine.

GERMAN DOCTORS VISITED DETAINED UKRAINIAN PILOT IN RUSSIA

German doctors have been allowed to visited Ukrainian military pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who has been on hunger strike for more than two months in a Russian jail, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said today.

Savchenko, 33, was captured by pro-Russian forces and handed over eight months ago to Russia, where she was imprisoned on charges of aiding the killing of two Russian journalists in east Ukraine. At home, she has become a symbol of resistance to Russian aggression.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow the humanitarian visit during talks on a ceasefire for eastern Ukraine in Minsk on Feb. 11-12, spokesman Martin Schaefer said.

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Ukrainian army pilot Nadia Savchenko holds a sign inside a cage as she attends a hearing at the Basmanny district court in Moscow charges with aiding the killing of two Russian journalists in east Ukraine last year

Two German doctors visited her on February 15, then held talks with her prison doctors, in which Savchenko was included.

Savchenko is reported to have lost 37 lb since going on a water and glucose diet in December.

Schaefer told a regular government news conference that Germany was extremely concerned about her health, and repeated an appeal for her release.

He gave no further details of her condition, and said it was regrettable that reports had appeared in Russian media despite an agreement to maintain confidentiality.

Russia's Investigative Committee says the pilot provided the coordinates of two Russian journalists who were killed by a mortar attack in June in the Luhansk region of east Ukraine, held by pro-Russian rebels. She denies the accusation, but could be jailed for up to 20 years if found guilty.

Steinmeier is a member of the traditionally Russia-friendly Social Democrats and has long ties with Putin, although he has stuck closely to Chancellor Angela Merkel's tough line with Moscow over its backing of separatists in east Ukraine.

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA - FEBRUARY 20: Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during an award ceremony in which he gave awards to 30 veterans of WWII at the Grand Kremlin Palace on February 20, 2015 in Moscow, Russia. The House of Lords EU committee has claimed Europe 'misread' the mood of the Kremlin in the run-up to the Ukraine crisis and did not realise how hostile Russia would be to the EU's closer ties to Ukraine. (Photo by Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)